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Untrodden Path, UP

Perspective, respective, detective, receptive, contraceptive. What do these five have in common? Let’s consider “perspective”.

Perpective only serves to perspire the detectives; but those who live—and see things “as is”—understand the circle is infinite; only the fool chooses to see it as a hole. Perspective.Respective to detectives, perspective is [ir]receptive. Reception into different minds and thought schools have come as a direct function of wide acceptation—but acceptation is reception, e primus—so why then do we wait for its acceptation before we receive it—individually?

“It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
— Aristotle

But some of us have empty fridges.

See, for every fork in the road…—think tuning fork, not cutlery; you gluttons! (Read the third boolean if you haven’t already.) For every fork in the road, there is a path which will not be chosen. There is a decision which is debunked as “less optimal”. There is a reality which will never be realized because the path we chose never forges on to form the new fork in the road which may or may not be the fork we need for Ks; for Ms; kilos and megas — not in bytes but in cash; think zeros. Does that force you to revalue your actions? Does that push your thoughts into the past in search for an optimality trend? The choices then which now yields the unwanted. Allow me soothe you with a shot each, from two different antidotes I’ve known to work:

Remember the composite nature of decision-making. Choice heralds free-will and free-will is bound to domains. Embrace the contingency.

The other unchosen path in the fork may lead to an encounter with the bullet—which is in such a hurry because it is always late for its appointment—of a veteran-sniper-turned-rogue because he did not come back to a job after serving. …Or the other N ways to die—you’re still here.

Still remember the point? For every fork in the road, there is a path which will not be chosen. But this—I hope—is common knowledge, no? Common knowledge is mundane. Mundane is boring. Boring is unattractive. Unattractive is not this blog; else you would not have read this far. Sometimes, we need the unattractive, mundane, common knowledge as a prelude to an interesting point; a cushion for the pieces of our mind blown at conception of such a point—the idea.

There is yet another path not chosen at every fork in the road. More interesting, this path is seldom considered. It exists but doesn’t; it is but isn’t. The existence of a “fork in the road” would not be possible without this seldom considered, never chosen path. You must have googled an image of the “tuning fork” by now. If you haven’t, I apologize for calling you a glutton ( ._.) Nonetheless, to better understand the first sentence, consider the letter “Y” as a representative of a “fork in the road”—I choose “Y” because the branches in “y” introduces less of a change in direction, at least in this font.

What makes “Y” Y instead of a merely kinked “I”?
Another stroke sharing origins with the kink. I’m sure you understand how technical it is; you are the teacher, sir.

Yes, I do. Now what keeps “Y” as is, without collapsing into an “I” or any of the possible kinks?
The necessary void, sir.

The void?
The void bounded by the two out-branchers. Related to the void outside the structure of the Y; but this void has been privileged, selected as part of the Y structure. That’s why I called it the necessary void, sir.

Thank you, you are brilliant.
Thank you sir! Those words honor me coming from you.

Such is the nature of the path which is seldom considered and never chosen. Geographically (and I use this word loosely)—or should I say “terrestrially”—a fork in the road presents two apparent paths and one not-so-apparent path which subsequently—progression being the only dependent factor for subsequence—is wider than the two apparent paths. Frankly, I do not know of any tried and tested way of walking down this path, but discovery always comes before exploitation. Now you know there is such a path, try—as I also will—to generate ways to walk in/on it.

Back to the second paragraph…

Perspective only serves to perspire the detectives; those who live—and see things “as is”—understand the circle is infinite; only the fool chooses to see it as a hole.

The hole is an expectation. An expectation that allows the expanse of a circle to mean the entrance into a world where its boundaries do not exceed the diameter of its entrance. So the fool enters the work force without the drive to continually further himself beyond what is presented to him. The jester enters the work place with a bigger smile every morning; in his mind this—this redundant madness—is new, is change. How can—I beg of you to think along—a human signing his life away to structure better his creativity which is inherently unstructured? Ah! An expectation! Isn’t that the future? A future we never see through the eyes of the minds who wished, dreamed and planned for it. A future which always introduces itself as “the present” when it shows up. Let the future worry about itself!!
Can we consider “the present”?
Can we love that which has decided to continue with us irrespective of our shortcomings?
Can we extol the now?
Can we hone the innate?
That which exists, that which is—choosing, consciously, to do things in reverse [for a change]: expect the past and forget the future.

To reverse is the simplest change that can be implemented; the other is MOST DIFFICULT—on par with re-engineering (but not doing away with) an addiction. But reversing may just mean returning to the origin and taking the other path down the fork. We must consider the void that lies between the forward and the reverse, the opposite and similar—a task the world and its metaphors make it almost impossible to embark on.

Perspective, respective, detective, receptive, contraceptive. What do these five have in common? A necessary hindrance.